What's Been Happening A placement with a DISHerence

Eight students from Canberra attended a week long work experience placement in June.

But this placement was not the usual Defence placement.

Instead of handling weapons, learning about field craft, the workings of a ship, simulating flying, or undertaking physical training, the students learnt about another aspect of Defence: the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) stream. The placement was with Defence Signals and Intelligence Hub (DISH).

A cyber security incident scenario that could happen in an Australian Signals Directorate work environment was given to the students to solve by the end of their placement. Each day they were presented with a series of workshops – along the way learning and using the tools and techniques required to enable them to solve the scenario.

The students also experienced a variety of activities such as programming, interception and encryption, forensic analysis and investigation, web application and security, Cryptanalysis, geospatial analysis, and prototyping with an Arduino. The students even had the opportunity to meddle with Lego and wind down.

Feedback from the students:

“Each day’s activities were important for the next and it showed each of the skills that were essential to solving the problem.”

“The thing I enjoyed most about this program is the content. It was something that I could only learn here and not anywhere else… thank you!”

“Having the ability to build, program and automate a robot that can be driven using your mobile phone was cool!”